Sanctus Espiritus
by 2012001
Summary: (ORIGINALLY WRITTEN IN 2011) If we can't restrain the beast which dwells inside / it will find it's way somehow, somewhere in time / Will we remember all of the suffering / Because if we fail it will be in vain.


**Note: I'm reuploading all my fics here for archival purposes. It is highly unlikely this will be continued.**

* * *

Princess Peach had a nasty habit. It was one which she found herself always incapable of preventing. She had a way of trying to look at the best of a person, rather than their less attractive self.

Sometimes this was a very good thing. Maybe there was a crying little Toad child, all alone because of his ugly clothes. Peach would say that he was very good in school, so he shouldn't worry about what other people thought of him. In other cases, she was stuck in a beaten-up Koopa Cruiser, the staring sadly at her captor's back.

Er, captor's _shell._

"Why do you care so much about the Beanstar, anyway?" Peach asked quietly. "If you don't have it, what use is it to you?"

"Idiot girl," Her kidnapper said. "Once those stupid brothers find all the Beanstar pieces and bring them to me, you'll be able to go home..once it's awakened, of course."

Peach sighed. "Then I won't say a word! Nothing!"

The kidnapper turned around. They were a creature that nobody would have ever dreamed even being born; a mutation of two people smashed together. They had both the body's hosts' genders, and had strange pigtail-like things coming out of their head. Their eyes glowed bright pink, and they had a sick smile on their face.

"Then I'll force you to," They said. Peach went silent.

"Fawful?"

Their toady came rushing in at the sound of his mistress's voice. "O Great Cack-..Bowletta?"

"Watch that," Bowletta said, not bothering to give Peach the slightest look.

"Cackletta," Peach said, interrupting what Fawful was about to say (And he looked rather miffed about it.) "You know, there's other ways of getting what you want besides being evil and wicked. Even you should know that."

Bowletta laughed. "Really? Maybe you should have said so sooner!"

And with that, she left the room.

Bowletta stared at the small device sitting on the table in front of her. She had just finished sending her message to the Mario Bros. and everyone else who was down in Beanbean castle. Now all there was left to do was a long time to wait. It would take them at least a few days to finally succeed in finding each and every piece, and how would they have any idea where they landed?

 _There's other ways of getting what you want.._

What SHE wanted? What she wanted was nearly impossible to get back.

...Evil and wicked...

Evil? Wicked? Fine. Think that as much as you want. She didn't look back to fondly on the past..

...Even you should know that.

Of course she knew that.

Wasn't going to change anything, now was it?

Bowletta leaned forward on the desk and shut her eyes. She might as well sleep for a bit, if the Mario Brothers were in fact ready to hand over the Beanstar, there would likely be a fight for it..

* * *

"...'Lady?"

No. No. She didn't want to wake up. It was nice and quiet here. Nobody bothering her. Quiet.

"My Lady?"

"Go away," She finally said.

"Sorry," The bodiless voice said. "I'm not going away. Not unless you decide to come back down with me."

"I don't want to go back down," She said. "I don't want to meet stupid Percival and his stupid parents and their stupid stupid everything."

"Percival isn't stupid," The voice said. "He's a very kind and handsome boy, and I've heard you two get along well."

"Fine, Cecia," She said, putting extra emphasis on the name. "I'll go."

The so-called Cecia crossed her arms. "Didn't I say you should call me Lady Lima? It sounds much better."

"You're my friend and I'll call you whatever I want."

"I'm also your lady-in-waiting who you should call Lady Lima."

"Cecia."

Lady Lima huffed. "Fine, Geragemona," She said. "Come down with me."

"If I call you Lady Lima, you'll call me Mona, okay?"

"Okay," Lady Lima said, rolling her eyes. "Now come on."

Mona smiled and followed her back down from the tower she was sitting atop of. Despite being her lady-in-waiting, Lady Lima was only five years older than she was, and also Mona's best friend. She got along fine without any friends, thank you, which was why she wasn't interesting in being with Percival.

Not that what Lady Lima said wasn't truth, of course. He was around her age, give or take a year. He had curly blonde hair that he usually grew long, despite the many times he was told to cut it. His eyes were a bright blue, standing out against his pale green skin. Contrast with Mona, who was dark-haired, purple-eyed, and an odd shade of green. She just felt so boring next to him. The two of them together managed to draw more than a few heads, though, because when the princess walks around with some male, people want to make a scene out of it. They weren't quite bethrothed yet; Mona was only nine years old, and her mother thought she should at least be allowed to have a say in it.

But everyone knew in the end she wouldn't get a word at all.

That was just how it went.

"Mona," Percival finally said, bowing deeply. Mona returned this by kicking him. "Nice shoes," he said, still bent over.

"Good, 'cause now they're stuck in your head."

"Grow up," Percival laughed. A very, very annoying laugh.

"Why are you here?" Mona said.

Percival stood up. "Father had something to say to your parents," He said. "but he won't say a word to me about it. Seemed pretty excited, though."

"All I heard was that some ship was sunk in Oho Ocean," Mona said. "That's not really something you get excited over, if you ask me."

"No, it was somewhere south. I dunno, he won't say."

"Which you already mentioned before."

"I may have mentioned it once or twice," Percival said. "But I don't think any more than that."

"Your Majesties, I think we may have finally caught onto something."

"Still chasing that mythical object around, are you, Fortescue?" King Arthur said, smiling slightly.

"Yes, as a matter of fact," Fortescue said. "We decided to head out overseas-"

"Did an Oho Jee point you on your way?" Arthur interrupted. His wife, Josette, glared at him.

"Enough of your sarcastic remarks," She chided. "Fortescue, please, continue."

"Your Highness," He said. "When we reached Joke's End, we automatically sent some men out to look. It was the only place we could think of that we haven't yet scoured (Bloody freezing up there, no wonder we haven't!) and might just have what we're looking for. Around noon somebody came back with word.

"He said that they had found a high collection of some kind of mystical power of sorts, not necessarily magic, but something more...common. Not necessarily out-of-this-world. We went up to where he had found it, and indeed there was something there!"

"Did you actually acquire it?" Josette asked. "Anything at all?"

"No, unfortunately, we were unable to make a scratch in the ice."

"At least that's something," Josette said.

"But!" Fortescue interrupted, "I'm sure we will return, and this time try to bring back something, if not this item itself!"

"What if it is merely some useless item, something perhaps from ancient civilizations past?" Arthur asked.

"Then we will still continue our search," Fortescue said. "Your Majesties, I've spent nearly a decade searching for the Beanstar, and I'm not about to give up yet!"


End file.
